When I first heard about this project to do a 25th anniversary edition of Michael Jackson’s phenomenal album Thriller, I was very excited.
Until I saw what they were trying to do with it.
Updates for 2008, it features the likes of Fergie (not the ManU boss, but that one), Kanye, will.i.am, and others doing what amount to tributes or covers of the original classics. As far as I can tell, MJ 2008 may have had little to do with this project save opening his royalty checks, which would be a shame if true — it does sound like he might have been involved on the remake of PYT, which might just be the most poorly selected track for his involvement. Hopefully someone had the good sense at getting him involved as a musical director or something on the rest. I would still like to believe, along with all the rest of the stuff that’s going on up there in the tragic story of Michael’s adult life, that there’s still a musical genius lurking up there.
The Village Voice has a nice glimpse into the album, which I will be avoiding on principle of believing that my copies of Thriller are far superior to any of the reworked material. I’m half-interested in the will.i.am version because of his involvement on Talib’s new joint, but I’ll be looking more closely at one of the other two types of 25th anniversary gimmicky packaging. Look at it as a small donation to the Save The Michael Jackson fund, though that’s probably not tax-deductible.
In any case, I forget that this generation of young people didn’t grow up with Michael. I wonder what they think of him; rather, I wonder if they know his musical legacy. To be sure, Thriller is how he should be remembered.
